This application is similar to but distinguishable from copending Application Ser. No. 207,851 owned by the assignee of this application and filed on Nov. 17, 1980.
Heat recoverable sleeves made from a material having elastic memory have been used for many years to protect, insulate, and sometimes aid in connecting and providing electrical continuity between spliced electrical wire ends and to provide a protective covering about pipe or tubing junctures. Embodiments of such sleeves for use as a protective covering about singular wire splices in conjunction with incorporating a means of aiding electrical continuity are proposed for example in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,243,211 and 3,708,611 and in U.S. Pat. No. 3,717,717 where a heat shrinkable cable sleeve is proposed that utilizes an outer semi-conductive sleeve in conjunction with an inner conductive sleeve. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,415,287 a heat recoverable jacket containing a mastic is proposed for use in protecting pipe joints.
Although such sleeves have been found to be of advantage by their ability to shrink snugly about wire splices and pipe or tube junctures to provide effective seals against penetration of moisture and other corrosive elements, they have the disadvantages of being limited to singular constructions that are able to accommodate only a single wire splice or pipe or tubing juncture and hence require the costly time consuming task of having to individually shrink each sleeve by heat separately about a single wire splice or pipe or tubing juncture as well as result in undesirable bulkiness associated with groupings of a plurality of such sleeves when adjacently positioned.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,243,211 it is further proposed to use a fusible insert within a heat shrinkable sleeve that has a plurality of perforations for individually encapsulating a plurality of wire splices. However, since the fusible insert is caused to melt and flow during the process of shrinking the sleeve by heat, there is the possibility that one or more of the wire splices may drift from their original positions within the fusible member during the heating process and thus result in the possibility of inadequate insulation thickness between adjacent wire splices.
In contrast to the use of such individual sleeves are fusible inserts for encapsulating a plurality of spliced wire ends, the open-ended heat recoverable connector of the present invention permits a plurality of articles such as wire ends or pipe or tubing ends to be joined together within the protection of only a single outer surrounding wall as well as be individually separated from each other by at least one internal wall that is integral with the outer wall of the connector and does not melt and flow when the connector is shrunken by heat in addition to being able to be shrunken by only a single application of heat as well as minimizing the bulkiness ordinarily occurring when a plurality of the prior art heat recoverable sleeves are positioned adjacent each other.